Ed Koch's tombstone engraved with wrong birth year

Jun. 18, 2013
|

Ed Koch / Seth Wenig, AP

by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

by Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

Oops! The tombstone for former New York City mayor Ed Koch bears the wrong year of his birth.

NBC 4 News reported that the mammoth marker for Koch, who died in February at the age of 88, says the brash and outspoken Democrat was born Dec. 12, 1942. He was actually born in 1924.

The mistake is especially notable because Koch, famous for turning around New York in the 1980s, had meticulously planned his funeral decades before he passed away from congestive heart failure.

Tommy Flynn, of Flynn Funeral and Cremation Services, told the TV station that he feels "terrible" about the mistake, which he called an "inadvertent error."

"I have to make it right. I will correct it," Flynn told NBC News 4.

The dates of Koch's birth and death were engraved earlier this month, well after the rest of the memorial was inscribed, including the final words of the late journalist Daniel Pearl: "My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish." Pearl was slain by terrorists in 2002.

Koch is buried at Trinity Church in the Washington Heights neighborhood -- a site chosen by the former mayor so he could remain in his beloved Manhattan "for eternity."